Mankcam

Although it's great to have a set of generic rules, I think Cyberspace may be a great setting niche for RD100 to get into. Especially with Bladerunner 2 on the horizon, it may be a genre that people want to get into again.

Yeah that is definitely lifted from Glorantha, unless there are some obscure antiquity myths regarding such that I haven't read about. Mazes & Minotaurs is a great little RPG, and the fact that it's totally free in PDF makes it even better.

I am sure I remember reading that there are no plans to do any more print versions of Moon Design's compiled Gloranthan Classics books, although the pdf versions will remain available (unsure for how long) It sounds like the plan for the print run will be to release all those original RQ2 titles as reprints of their original publications, under the RQ Classic line. I suspect they will all be in pdf version as well. Its a shame, as I was waiting for a compiled volume of Trollpak in the Gloranthan Classics line. I also missed the compiled Pavis & Big Rubble hardcover. No worries, I will just have to wait for the RQ Classic versions now.

This is kinda a version of one of the Aimed Blow rules from the RQ2 rulebook (under Optional Combat Rules in the Appendix). I always thought it was an interesting way to do an aimed blow, but didn't see it appear like this in other additions. Good to know it can be ported easily into the other BRP rules mechanics.

Actually I think CoC 7E does reasonably well addressing this by having an additional level of success ('Hard' = half skill %). Different outcomes occur if attackers score better degrees of success. This is consistent with standard BRP rules, except the additional degree of success makes things much more dynamic in combat. The CoC 7E Success Levels are: 00 = Fumble Exceed Skill score = Failure Under Skill score = Regular Success Under 1/2 score = Hard Success Under 1/5 score = Extreme/Special Success 01 = Critical Success Introducing the additional level of success often breaks up the 'stalemate' dynamic that you are describing. I am likely to use something like this with RQ unless there is an official ruling that is similar to this in the new rules.

Most Lovecraftian tales would probably be considered to be Weird Horror Fiction, which is a sub-genre of 'Pulp' Especially since many of Lovecraft's stories were originally published in dimestore publications which are now considered to be The Pulps. The Pulp Cthulhu book is more aimed at emulating another aspect of Pulp, that of Adventure, (the modern day equivalent would be 'Action'). Indiana Jones has a very different flavour to stories like The Dunwich Horror, so its not redundant. Detective Noir or Crime Fiction can also be considered another sub-genre of Pulp (which the modern equivalent would be Forensic Investigation). I guess the term 'Pulp' is a very broad umbrella term. I have seen endless discussions regarding what constitutes as 'Pulp', and there is rarely a consensus. Perhaps a more apt title to the new book would have been 'Pulp Cthulhu Adventures', so to be clear that the focus is on Pulp Adventure as opposed to CoC's default of Weird Horror.

I had my stash of RQ2 and RQ3 products for all those years. Then suddenly MRQ1 and HeroWars show up, practically eroding everything I had envisioned for RQ and Glorantha. Both had a very different flavour to Glorantha to what I remembered, esp MRQ1. Everything except for that white book of Gloranthan fiction in the HW box - it felt like a link to earlier Glorantha Things picked up somewhat with MRQ2 and HeroQuest, and in recent years things seems to be falling back into place. MRQ1 and HW were a very uninspiring era for me in regards to RQ and Glorantha, but things have been looking good in the last few years. Esp from the release of the HQ Sartar and Pavis books onwards, it feels like a setting I want to run.

I could envision the Noir Detective book taking a lot of rules from CoC 7E (esp Pulp Cthulhu), and I can envision Mythic Iceland working with either CoC 7E or RQ rules. Its going to be interesting seeing how both of those products roll out!

I think CoC 7E works better as a common core, although if wanting to play a fantasy setting then RQ is likely to be better However there isnt any word on doing a new edition of BGB, I am just bouncing ideas around for the sake of conjecture. Keeping the current edition available as a PoD hardcover sounds reasonable

I think if I was looking for a new edition of the BGB the two main things I would prefer would be art and rules consistency. By this I mean having similar art standards to the current CoC books, as this makes for a great book to have, as well as eye candy to attract new buyers. By rules consistency I think some efforts to make it more or less consistent with CoC 7E is a good move. The basics are already there, spread across the CoC Keepers book, the Pulp book, and the Thru The Ages booklet It should be reasonably consistent with one of the current setting lines, and I think the RQ line will be more setting specific than CoC, so CoC is possibly the better one to model it from. I could also see a situation where you have the current BGB published as a PoD for those who love these rules (kinda being a 'BRP Classic Rules'). This could sit nicely alongside a new edition which is a bit more consistent with CoC 7E (although I possibly still prefer the original Characteristics being 3D6 range, out of familarity). I do understand reservations regarding Generic BRP being an entire product line, and I do think Chaosium is doing a good thing consolidating their efforts into the Lovecraftian and Gloranthan settings. Despite such, I wouldnt want the BGB to be completely out of print. It is such a useful book to have, and many of us have alot of fond memories attached to it. It's certainly been an essiential part of my rpg gaming experience for the last decade.

I think it would be great for the BGB to have another edition at some stage. With the art direction being the same quality of the new Chaosium products then it would be a worthy purchase. I cannot see why that shouldnt occur, as it doesn't have to have an entire line associated with it like RQ or CoC. Just a one-off book for GMs to use to create their own settings would be fine. Not sure of the market viability, but its just something I'ld love to see on my personal wishlist.

In the G2G the Orlanthi are described as being of Warereran ethnicity, with many having olive skin. So I am assuming this means looking along the lines of Caucasians from Southern Europe, although there are bound to be regional differences here and there due to climate and other variables. The main issue is the cultural shift from the UK Celtic/Saxon analogies for the Orlanthi, to influences from Central and Southern Europe down to the Mediterranean. This formally occurred a few years ago now upon the release of the G2G. However the Orlanthi remain Wareran in ethnicity, and thus look similar to Caucasians. Many Southern Europeans have olive-skin, which doesn't make them less Caucasian than pale-skinned Northerners from the colder climes. Of course, Australians are rumoured to have blue skin like the Veldang. Something to do with the Pacific and Indian Oceans converging.

Although I love Mythras, a more streamlined approach like classic BRP games does suit my current my troupe much better, so I am glad that RQG is keeping with this way of doing it. A Special success with an attack roll causes a bonus effect based upon the type of damage inflicted - this suits me fine. It certainly doesn't happen all the time, so when it does then it is a highlight. You also know straight away which bonus effect to apply, so it does not slow down game play at all when it occurs. I prefer the optional rules for these special effects from RQ2 to their BGB counterparts, although the BGB included additional effects like Entangling and such which I think could be easily added to the RQ2 Special Effects of Impaling, Crushing, and Slashing; all this would all work well together for the new RQG edition. For Critical Successes I actually prefer how it works in CoC 7E. Here the critical success only happens on a roll of '01', so it's immediately clear when it occurs. Very simple. However the result is left wide open to the GM. In CoC 7E it can be purely a narrative result with the GM determining what occurs; or it can be a mixture of rules and narrative, such as the standard special success plus some kind of additional grandstanding moment. In the Pulp CoC 7E supplement there is a list of suggested additional effects to combine to the standard weapon special success, ranging from the old RQ3 and BGB Critical Effects through to some new ones. I think something like this would be welcome way of doing it in RQG, as it does give a real 'wow' factor to rolling a critical success.

I don't really see the array of combat manuvers to be neither a feature or a flaw in Mythras, but rather just a trait of the game. One man's trash is anothet man's treasure kind of thing. Two of the players in my group would react to them very differently One would love the ammount of choice available, and would no doubt study up on the options so he could get the best out of every situation. The other player would probably just grind to an inert halt, being overwhelmed by the perceived sheer volume of choices. So I guess it is really up to the kind of players in the troupe whether the combat manuvers are a boon to game flow or not. However you look at it, they certainly build upon the tactile flavour of combat that is already inherent in BRP.

I agree that CoC didn't need fixing, however what they did with it surprisingly seemed to make it better for me. I do agree with you regarding the endless lists of Feats/Talents/ Advantages etc in many other games is often just bonuses to skill rolls. So in BRP you just portray this by having more skill allocation points to play with during the char gen process - pick the Heroic or Epic level, for instance. I always liked limiting starting skills to 70% max, but if the player wanted to provide a good narrative explanation for having higher skills then I would allow relevant skills to have an 85% starting maximum. For example, if a character is described as having keen eyesight "like a hawk" then I would allow to start up to a max of 85% in skills like Scan/Spot and ranged weapons - no need for a GURPS-like Feat called 'Eagle Eyes'. The PC would then have to focus their skill allocation into those skills to make full use of that higher cap, but thats also why you would allow them to start with Heroic or Epic skill pt allocation. I don't mind the notion of Talents for a Pulp game (like CoC 7E where you get a bonus dice to your rolls), it certainly does feel pulpy and action-orientated. But for standard fantasy, psuedo-historical, scifi etc I wouldn't want to worry about it, it just feels a bit like baggage. The other way to add a bit of colour is to really dress up the narrative whenever a Special Success or Critical Success is rolled. Highly skilled characters will tend to roll these a bit more often, so dressing up the narrative outcome is often a good way to portray actions that other games would require a Feat system to do. Nice and simple. BRP doesn't do everything great. But it comes pretty close, and has always been underrated as a system. I really like watching something on television, then saying I can easily port that into a rpg session using BRP - it's so smooth that it can work for almost anything. It's only early days yet, but skimming through Revolution D100 and I think its going to give the BGB a good run for its money. It covers the same ground, but has a few modern tweaks, so it could potentially displace the BGB as my 'go-to' reference for a generic system. Having said that, BRP is still one of the best generic systems on the market, and I'm glad to have the BGB hardcover in my bookcase

I'm sure this was done with RQ2 and RQ3 magic items which had Spirit Magic in them. I do remember permanent magic being stored at the cost of POW to the enchanter. In RQ2 the items were required to have a Power Crystal crafted into them in order to contain the magic, given that crystals represented or were the blood of gods from The Gods War, and thus had natural properties that allowed crystals to hold magical energy. So a POW 4 Crystal could hold up to 4pts of magic, which would cost up to 4 POW to be transferred into the crystal by the enchanter if the magic was to be a permanent enchantment. In RQ3 it didn't seem this was necessary in the generic rules; perhaps the POW crystal stipulation was purely a setting feature of Glorantha.. However we also had one use-items which were just item's with delayed spells cast on them (from memory). These were the everyday folk charms which were common place, and once the spell had been triggered and utilised then the item was simply a mundane item. I ended up playing Glorantha using a mix of RQ3, BGB, and house rules ported from HW/HQ concepts etc, so I cannot remember what was canon now. I dont think the term 'Charms' is actually anywhere in the earlier RQ rules, but it is Gloranthan as it is referred to as such in the HQ rules. The RQ term was 'matrixs,' although characters in Glorantha would refer to them as charms, fetishes or artefacts ( I think only the God Learners would have referred to them as Matrixs). In my mind you could have both permanent and limited-use matrixs/charms, but it has been a while since I read the RQ3 rules. I'll take at look at the earlier editions of RQ later tonight to see how it officially worked

$100 USD is close to about $115 AUD + weighty international shipping costs - just getting a bit too pricey for the likes of myself for a paperback book that would be getting close to 20 years of age. Although I expect it probably now goes for prices similar to that on Amazon or eBay, especially if sealed. I do remember seeing it in the shops years ago, and it did looked like a great book to have. Love that cover

Hey everyone something weird is happening in this thread Although I totally agree that the Veldang are the race with no earthly quivalent, I never posted that comment. It was posted by g33k, but when 21stCenturyMoose quoted g33k it shows up on my screen as quoting myself. Something very weird here. Not just the odd comments from waltshumate about Warereran not equating to Caucasians, but something very odd, like we are being baited. Plus I get a warning from my PC that this page is a security risk, so I'm jumping out of here.

Wareran = Caucasian (or close enough). Fair skin would be broadly consistent with Northern Europeans, and olive skin would be more consistent with Southern Europeans. I think that is pretty clear

It was actually about 1986, I had only just moved into tabletop rpgs, graduating up from Fighting Fantasy gamebooks. I was initially wanting D&D, but my older cousin was into RQ and he conned me to get RQ2 instead, which was a great idea in hindsight. I only had RQ2 for a year or so, and moved into RQ3 but kept playing the content from the RQ2 supplements. Our Pol Joni were definitely more brutish Conan-types back then. It was the 1980s and all our adolescent notions of barbarians came from watching cheesy fantasy movies like Conan The Barbarian, Beastmaster, and The Sword & The Sorcerer. Later in the 1990s we started fleshing things out a bit more, and the Hun element crept in to our portrayal of the Pol Joni. Ah, the '80s...

In my opinion the MRQ line had some great stuff mixed in with some bad. The first edition era was particularly bad, I felt that it presented a very cheesy version of Glorantha. The MRQ2 era was much better, but still failed to capture the Glorantha of RQ2 days. However the authors did work hard to recover the losses from the previous edition. The RQ6/ Mythras rules are quite good, although combat does flow somewhat differently with all the combat manuver options. If you have Mythras then I would suggest using it for the Mythic Earth settings. MRQ2 Vikings is quite good, and now Mythras has Mythic Rome and Mythic Britain. Lots of flavour in all these books! However as far as Glorantha goes, I would be inclined to wait until RQG is published , and use the new supplements as well as the RQ2 reprints. If you are really eager then you could try RQ2 now, and update once RQG is released. So back to the vault with most of the MRQ Glorantha releases, but still useful to pillage here and there, nothing is ever a complete waste.

I see it pretty much similar to the above. A good mix of Pol Joni and backwater Orlanthi, making it live up to its namesake. I view it as the seat of power for the Pol Joni, although its primarily a ranshackle market town that swells at various times of the year, much of this as a tent city. Very dangerous, much like what you could expect if various Mongol hordes all met up for a moot. One of the first characters we created back in the RQ2 days came from there. We set the game in Pavis, and my mate created his first RQ character using the old RQ2 char gen, rolling a 'Barbarian' background on the social class table. Arnie's movie was popular at the time, so he envisioned a character looking and acting like the film's portrayal of Conan. Not knowing anything about the culture we just looked at the RQ2 map and saw the name 'Barbarian Town' and said he was from there Our Pol Joni are a cross between Howard's Cimmerians and The Huns. The more I uncover about the Pol Joni, the more I'm surprised how spot on we were.

I'ld throw money at that!

You're more Inner Circle than me, I stop somewhere in The Silmarillion

Future generations will view Gloranthan fans as 'not serious', unless they have a copy of the G2G. Much like how Tolkien buffs view the fans of the New Line films who havent actually read the novels of The Hobbit and The Lord Of The Rings. It's that good